What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Be my guest, McTag. It's all language. I don't care what profanities you use as long as you are honest enough to address my questions, the ones you are falling all over yourself trying to avoid.



You mean the one where he showed his usual dismal understanding of prescriptive/descriptive and language in general.

At least show enough honesty to actually address Spendi's drivel, McTag.

Who was prescriptive in our discussion? Who was descriptive?



Please. Your attempts to rally all the other prescriptivists to your cause is really lame. Where do you figure they are going to land?

Why not just address the actual issues? Show your honesty and answer the questions that have posed to you.

I'm not interested in prescriptive/descriptive language. It's like the phlogiston theory. Sub atomic particles is how I see it.

You're stuck with the pigeonhole brigade. An eccentric vicar with a net catching butterflies to pin in a glass case for exhibition.

Like Chomsky.

Oh, now you're not interested, right after you embarrass yourself by illustrating that you haven't the foggiest notion about these language issues.



You don't even the necessary honesty to man up and admit you were wrong, that you made false accusations.

Why do you continue to stick your big nose in things you know nothing about.



Stop throwing out big words that you don't understand. You don't see it at all because your understanding of it, which you continue to parade with wild abandon, is abysmal.

I certainly ignore many things you write, including questions, for a variety of reasons, many of which I have already explained to you.

I will certainly answer any honest, helpful, worthwhile question.
If you devise questions which are actually a personal attack, why then, there's your problem.

I "embarrass" myself. I haven't the "foggiest notion". I don't have the "necessary honesty". I don't "man up". I made "false accusations". I'm "sticking" my "big nose in things" I "know nothing about". I'm "throwing out big words" I "don't understand". I "don't see it at all". My "understanding of it, which" I "continue to parade with wild abandon, is abysmal".

Go and boil your head you extremely silly moo cow.

There is no language worth considering in one word of that post. You are in a bubble. It is of no consequence to your mindset how words are spelled or what order they are in because what you say is meaningless. You have no capacity to discuss anything with anybody unless it is someone who agrees with everything you say. Anybody who doesn't gets the play-pen treatment you just provided an excellent example of.

Spendius, you were flat out wrong in your posting.

I said.

You've got this so incredibly ass backwards due, I'm sure, to your dismal understanding. [see below] It was McTag that was trying to beat up on people. It was McTag's ignorance, either in the pejorative sense of the word or not, that caused this problem.

You just don't like it because you've gotten your ignorance mixed up in it.


Spendius: You're a fundamentalist presciptivist.

Again, highly illustrative of just how dismal is your understanding. I didn't prescribe anything. McTag did. I described how language works wrt the variant spellings of miniscule/minuscule.

You either lied or your ignorance is much deeper than previously thought.

You ignored, and you usually ignore, all the pertinent questions on the actual language issue.

You asked me to go back to see how you weren't rude when that is exactly what you were from your first mention of 'miniscule' to your last.



You've got a lot of gall, McTag. Again, you devised your replies to be rude. You even admitted that you wish you had Spendius's "ability" to reply and you agreed with everything he wrote.

You were wrong on the central language issue. And instead of being honest about it, you've resorted to deception and more rudeness.

For the record, I admit that some of my replies were rude. That's what you get when you make a pretense of knowing about language and malign other people's natural language use.

I think we've dealt with that. It was a remark to another person, and a complimentary one at that.

Then you're in, like a deranged terrier. Yes sure, it gets rude after that. You need to revise your modus operandi, if you don't intend to spoil everything. Spend has pointed out, and I've noticed, that your posts are peppered with insults and derogatory comments. Strewn even.

JTT is a one topic horse show; boring and not worth reading. If you heard it once, he's repeated it a million times with different wordings in every thread he's posted on - even when it's not relevant.

A ******* BORE. Why people engage this idiot is the mystery for me!

What a surprise!!



Obviously. What's so incredible about something I did.



It couldn't be due to my clarity of understanding could it? Anybody with a clarity of understanding wouldn't get anything ass backwards apart from a lady of coarse disposition. Your tautology is wasted words. All Dylan fans know what wasted words signify.



What problem? My Shorter Oxford does not have "miniscule" in it. And it must weigh 10 lbs. So I don't suppose it's in the 20 volume version.



I push things aside that I don't like. In what way have I got my ignorance, an assertion, mixed up with Mac's ignorance, another assertion, when I use "miniscule".



I never said I wasn't. I would never write "gotten" instead of "have" because it requires one letter extra effort.

You really must try to steel yourself to allow other minds to be injured or confused or misguided. Your kindly anxiety on behalf of the mental constitution of others fails to take account of the chance of some of the others having a robuster mental constitution that yourself.

I am convinced you are female.

Punch bag practice ci.

No, it has been established that it was you illustrating your ignorance on a specific bit of language.

Is it complimentary to advance ignorance and suggest that others are the ignorant ones?

It has also been established that this was not the first time you've advanced this bit of ignorance on precisely the same issue, which points up just how dishonest your claims have been.



So now, after making a big pretense that you weren't rude, even challenging me to find your rudeness, you allow that you were rude.

Doesn't sound like honesty at all, McTag.

I wrote: Spendius: You're a fundamentalist presciptivist.






What has this babbling got to do with anything, save for you parading what everyone already knows is your abysmal ignorance on language?

That wasn't the issue at all. You are so patently dishonest, Spendi.

You saw the quote and you deleted "Spendius", why?, to divert attention away from just how out to lunch you were in your false accusations against me.

Have I mentioned just how patently dishonest you are, Spendi?



Caught yourself again. Why all your "wasted words" to highlight as you have, just how ignorant and dishonest you were.

But 'wasted words' are your stock in trade. You think that bafflegab can disguise your stupidity when it only serves to accentuate it.

jtt:



More babbling. You didn't address what I stated at all.

It's been established that miniscule is an accepted variant, accepted, grudgingly, by McTag, even by you.

There was even an Oxford entry given that noted that, so why the hell are you advancing such an arrantly ridiculous supposition?

Why are you babbling on and on about nothing?

Because you are Spendius.

Note that CI, who you have accused many times of this same babbling, now sides with you. Birds of a feather?



You certainly do that, with all manner of crazy, disjointed meandering, with this specific meaning;

meander or meander on - to talk or write for a long time, changing subjects or ideas, so that people become bored or confused.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/meander#meander_7



You've just spent a long posting admitting to your ignorance and it's either this same ignorance or dishonesty that has you advancing this bit of lunacy, above.

How you could possibly come to the conclusion that it involves your use of minuscule is beyond belief?

You do just meander, Spendi, saying anything and everything that you can inject that has little, or more your favorite, nothing to do with the topic at hand.

You haven't learnt much, then? You intend to carry on as before? So be it. You can go to hell.

Its hard to believe that anyone opts
to engage in conversation with so caustic n toxic a mind as JTT.

You're off your head my dear.

I defended "miniscule" in my "quillo" post. I did not know that "minuscule" was the correct spelling. I was quite surprised to find it was.

I say "miniscule" in speech and if I have ever written the word I'm sure I would have used that spelling.

I know I am ignorant. I accept that I know less than 0.001% of what there is to be known. Probably much less. I am pretty sure Chomsky is in the same boat.

My pet peeve is President Obarmy's weasel wordism and the failure of Americans to titter everytime he empties his lungs at us.

Just for amusement, I reproduce a JTT post here, addressing another contributor, with some of the text removed for illustrative purposes:

babbling
parading what everyone already knows
abysmal ignorance
patently dishonest
to divert attention
out to lunch
false accusations
patently dishonest (again)
ignorant and dishonest
bafflegab
your stupidity
ignorance
more babbling
arrantly ridiculous
crazy, disjointed meandering
this bit of lunacy
beyond belief

Can this person be wholly sane? What do you think, bearing in mind he is developing a rant based upon a remark of mine which he has, perhaps wilfully, misunderstood.
The remark was "An alternative? We live and learn.", which was followed by an obvious joke. (no emoticon, though. Some people seem to need those.)

I think it shows an amazing command of the language, if you consult the original post, that such bile can be written without recourse to sweary words. I'm not sure I could do it.

It would be easy Mac. She's an amateur at the game. If I haven't had them all directed my way I certainly have most of them. And many more than once by a considerable margin.

She reminds me of one of those old grumpy blokes who sit in the corner of pubs over an inch of flat beer grinding their gums together and muttering to themselves.

She has a need to be censorious and language issues and the crimes of our governments are ideal subjects to exercise on.

I find it sufficiently amusing to allow that it might be a put on.

With dogs like that vets advise a change of diet. Lettuce sandwiches for supper are said the meliorate the propensity. Or a whole lettuce shoved down with a stick in emergencies.

In general, it seems to me, the American style with insults is rather crude.

One of the reasons I no longer interact with JTT is its inability even have a moderate discussion without being introduced to its deranged view on world politics and US and UK"genocide" in particular. On the same note though, it is completely condoning ofthe acts of genocide by GErmany and Japan during the pre WWII days.. Osso once said that she could even agree with JTT if we hd some decent discussions that could lead to a consensus. Instead JTT just engages in ceaseless wacky rotomontade. You must agree with it or it goes completely batshit crazy on you. Its actually been kinda scary listening to its crazy scolding.
Once,I had the hardihood to disagree with it in a fashion that it couldn't take so, since that time (its been like 2 years since Ive ignored it) anytime I post something with an opinion, I see that theres a post from it that follows mine and , since Im now only ignoring JTT, I can only assume that its chewing me out for some strange reason that interferes with its airspace.

I find it sad that I can carry on gut busting arguments with all sorts of nastiness and differences of opinions with , say, gungasnake, and gunga and I don't seem to HATE. JTT just hates everything western and is probably a sociopath of very small stature and uses its enter button as a means to "even the stature challenges"

Spendi says its a girl, I don't know. BUT, I know, Its not of a human species, that's for sure. I don't think that theres anyone on the board who lasts very long in polite communication with JTT.
Ive watched you, in the last few weeks , quoting JTT , so I could tell that it has begun a grate on you. You've been very cordial and almost concessional in your dealings with it. Your humor's come through an you've been repeatedly bitten, despite your concessions. I saw your "kiss my ass" admonition , so I can assume that you too, like tens of others, have reached the end of your line with it.

I think its got social rabies.

Im waiting for Robt to initiate the new :ignore" where,if I ignore someone, they cannot see any of my posts. Imagine, JTT will just disappear into the ether. If youre one of those who insists that JTT has something to offer, I understand you will be able to "scan" its posts . Sounds kinda NSA but Im not one whose impressed with its skills in anything.

You wrote (in addition to my agreement with everything else you wrote),

That's a darn good idea; I hope Robert takes it to heart, and develops something to blindside people we Ignore, so they can't see our posts. Damn good idea. JTT is a ******* BORE who repeats the same refrain a million different ways.